Mirthless
by Asha Carcella
Summary: "No Wally. It's still great having Batman, you, Red Arrow and Agent A…" he clenched his fists and looked down, "But when you loose everything that you thought would last forever… There's not much that could change the fact that you're alone forever," he whispered. Robin explains to the Team why he is who he is. T for darker themes.


Hey everyone! I'm back for a short one-shot… be warned, it's sort of depressing and dark…

Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice

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Mirthless laughter rang throughout the Mountain. The sound echoed off the wall, sending chills down each member's spines. All except one, the person who had given off the laugh. It was weird to say the least, to hear such a sound come from a team mate that usually cackled like a hyena just to take pleasure in seeing a villains expression.

The Team had just arrived back at the Mountain. Their usually cheery mood was downed by the near death experience of their youngest member, who strangely seemed unfazed. The mission hadn't gone as planned, but then again their missions never go as planned. It was nothing new when they had engaged with the enemy but this had caused multiple explosions to be set off in the building they were currently in. Aqualad had immediately ordered that they should leave since the building was in fact collapsing. Everyone had agreed without a second thought, all abandoning their fighting stances and making a beeline for the nearest exit.

At the last second an enemy had grabbed Robin's billowing cape and had dragged him farther into the collapsing building. Once out of the building Kid Flash had noticed the lack of his best friend. He, Zatanna and Connor had gone back into the flaming building to save their friend. Artemis had stayed behind with Kaldur and M'gann because she was coughing due to inhaling too many fumes.

The team members who had gone into the building had finally found their friend, he was laying on the floor blood leaking from a large cut just below his eye. His breathes were coming out in short gasps as he tried to take in as much oxygen as he could. This only served to fill his lungs with more noxious fumes. Kid Flash hadn't wasted one moment in picking up Robin and speeding out of the building. It had taken several moments for Robin to recover from the lack of oxygen but after he had caught his breathe he was back to his normal joking self. This worried the team immensely.

As the mirthless laughter died down the Team watched him with even more concern. Kaldur had asked a simple question.

"Why do you do this?" Instead of answering the question Robin had laughed mirthlessly. He looked at the Team, his facial expression was unreadable. His black hair was wet with sweat and hung down in sinister looking tendrils, covering parts of his face. The cut below his eye had stopped bleeding but now it looked too bright against his pale face.

"You ask me why I do this, when I should be asking you the same thing," Robin stated simply eying the leader of the Team with a calculating gaze.

"Why?" Kaldur asked again in a soft voice, "why do you continuously risk you life for others when you are so young. You almost died out there… you have a long life to live…why are you…Robin?"

A ghost of a smile crossed over Robin's face, pulling lightly at the corners of his mouth. "If you want to know so badly, it's fine I'll tell you all. It's actually pretty simple. Let's just say that I don't have much to live for," his voice dropped as he said the last part.

Had they heard right? One of the happiest members on the Team had just said _that_? Their faces fell as they all took in what he had just said, their minds processing the new information.

Wally looked at his best friend, "Robin-"

He was cut off by Robin who looked at him with an even more pained expression, "No Wally. It's still great having Batman, you, Red Arrow and Agent A…" he clenched his fists and looked down, "But when you loose everything that you thought would last forever… There's not much that could change the fact that you're alone forever," he whispered.

The Team was confused but they held their tongues. Wally wasn't confused though, he knew exactly what his friend was talking about. It just pained him that he hadn't known his brother felt this way all the time.

"So I figured," Robin continued, still looking at his clenched fist, "that after I lost everything it could be fixed by ending the pain myself," he looked up at his team with a bittersweet smile on his face, "but obviously that didn't work since I'm still here… I thought that maybe I should give the bad guys a crack at it. Robin just fell into the whole 'healing' process."

Had Robin just indirectly hinted that he has tried to kill himself before? Stunned, that was the word to describe the Team. They understood now, their friend was openly accepting death; since he didn't do it himself he would give the villains a chance.

"But Robin… You're so young," Artemis tried to reason. This only brought on another wave of mirthless laughter from the lithe acrobat.

"Please Artemis," he looked at her with an almost glare," you guys are like what? Two, three years older than me? I'm just being the realistic one here and saying that death is part of life, it's going to happen sooner or later."

The Team looked at Artemis who seemed crest fallen by the answer Robin had given. When they looked back, Robin was nowhere in sight but they still heard it. The faint whisper even though it seemed to echo in everyone's minds. The whisper of Robin saying," but it would be better if it was sooner rather than later," and shortly after, the mirthless laughter of the bird.

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Too dark? I don't know, please leave a review and tell me what you think… Please don't alert this story, this is strictly a one-shot. Thanks and please review.

-Asha


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